24 September 2011

Blood Pressure: It's a Mystery to Me

I was recently hospitalized overnight for observation having sustained a very ungrace-filled slip and fall. Head to pavement a Swan Song does not make.

When I got to the hospital my blood pressure was 155/92. Figured that was pretty high considering my usual blood pressure evokes astonished comments like "Wow, you have the blood pressure of a teen boy" as it settled around 114/72. For some health professionals, they also thought this was a little to low for a woman of my height, size and generally good health.

Over the past five days my blood pressure upon waking has been 175/89, 181/105 and 114/74 . The best it has been over these peculiar past five days has been 120/83. The nurse exclaimed, "You are almost perfect!" With further inquiry, I learned that blood pressure perfection is 120/80. Even with that affirmation and information, I had to conclude, blood pressure function and measuring remains a mystery to me. I have not figured out what makes the numbers blow-up or lower. I don't know what to do, to keep the low one and lower the high one. SMH as the day after, taken at the same time an under comparable conditions, my blood press was 120/78. It's a mystery to me.

What I will say is this, there is something to be said of having a hug when your blood pressure is up. After Love's lingering hug my blood pressure stabilized (120/83) and proceeded to lower to my 'normal' (114/74) overnight. Amazing!

If Love's hug can do me like this, I am going to keep Love in hugging distance, continue my pescetarian diet, add 1K steps to my pedometer, and better tend to my sleep hygiene (aka, go to bed at a decent hour before 1 a.m.) But for now...

2 comments:

High blood pressure is very common. It is often unrecognized and often under treated. Complications include heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, heart failure and blindness. Treatment greatly reduces the risk of getting complications or dying prematurely.

I agree with Kaney, a high pressure nowadays are not very surprising even for kids. because of technology we forget exercise and we use liposuction to make our appearance look good without considering the health. not only that the food we eat are not healthy unlike the years where our great grand parents eat.